Archives: November, 2005
Features
Religious stock photography sources
I was recently introduced to a new site called Christianphotos.net featuring Christian stock photos free of charge for Christian uses. The site currently offers images that are uploaded by amateur and pro-sumer photographers similar to the for-profit website istockphoto.com. No license information is displayed on the site so it is not clear what uses are permitted and I don’t see any info about releases on the site. It occurred to me as I was searching on this site that there are also many professional stock companies that offer this specialty as well. While these images are not offered for free they are more likely to have the necessary model and property releases in order to use them for commercial uses.
Here is a list of websites offering stock images with a religious focus.
DesignPics – Canadian stock agency offering many religious themed Royalty Free images.
SW Productions – California agency specializing in Royalty Free Christian images.
Acclaim Images – Offers both Rights Managed and Royalty Free religious images
Ponkawonka – A specialist stock agency from Toronto offering Rights-Managed religious image including Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Jain, Hindu and Sikh, Judaism, Zoroastrian, Inspirational and Spiritual Images.
Jewish Stock Photos – A nice resource for Jewish-themed Royalty Free stock photographs.
Press Release: Photolibrary Acquires Index Stock Imagery, New York
Photolibrary Acquires Index Stock Imagery, New YorkNew York - October 2006: Leading global stock image group, Photolibrary, are excited to announce its further expansion with the signing of an agreement to purchase Index Stock of New York. Index Stock will join the rapidly expanding group, which includes Photolibrary http://www.photolibrary.com , Garden Picture Library (GPL) http://www.gardenpicture.com, Oxford Scientific (OSF) http://www.osfimages.com and http://www.osffootage.com, Fresh Food Images (Anthony Blake of the UK – http://www.abpl.co.uk) and Monsoon Images http://www.monsoonimages.com (also out of New York). This merged collection continues Photolibrary Groups’ strategy of providing the picture buying community with easy access, striking imagery and unbeatable service across an ever-growing subject range that straddles the unique and the everyday.
Index Stock markets a library of over one million digital images through four brands - Index Stock Imagery and Index Open, catering to advertisers, designers, large corporations, magazines, and book publishers, and Photos To Go and Photos To Go Unlimited, marketing to small business and home business image users. Utilising this structure, it is Photolibrary Group’s intention to re-brand the Index Stock business whilst simultaneously launching a more traditional RM and RF website via http://www.photolibrary.com in the US.
Glenn Parker, Photolibrary Group CEO explains: “This approach will give our contributing artists direct access to the US Market, in turn giving US customers access to the full suite of our collections which range from traditional lifestyle imagery through to specialist collections in nature and the environment; gardens and botany; food and fine art imagery. Index Stock's current and future artists will also benefit from being placed on http://www.photolibrary.com where customers can access all this product in one place.
Index Stock founder Bahar Gidwani says: “Joining the Photolibrary Group brings new opportunities to Index Stock’s artists, customers, and employees. Index’s artists will benefit from the investments Photolibrary is making in distribution, marketing and technology. Index’s customers will see millions of great new images and its employees will be an important part of a larger, worldwide organization. I am proud of what our team accomplished over the past fifteen years and I know Index Stock will make a substantial contribution to Photolibrary’s future success.”
Glenn Parker continues: “This is Photolibrary Group’s next step into the US market and we are excited about the possibilities on offer to our customers. We can also now truly say to our present and future artists that we can service customers across all major territories around the world.”
About Photolibrary
The Photolibrary Group gives customers access to over 2 million images and over 2,000 hours of footage, available online via http://www.photolibrary.com and http://www.indexstock.com plus its specialist websites http://www.osfimages.com, http://www.osffootage.com, http://www.gardenpicture.com, http://www.abpl.co.uk and http://www.monsoonimages.com. With offices in 10 countries around the world, the group is able to deliver superior customer service and support. In addition to a unique set of wholly owned brands, the group offers customers over 100 partner brands and represents over 2,000 photographers from around the world. The Photolibrary Group has offices in the United Kingdom (London and Oxford), the USA (New York), Australia (Sydney and Melbourne), Singapore, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates.
Features
Stock Photography 101
Nathan Segal has published a story at Webreference.com entitled “Stock Photography for Web Developers”. This article is a great introduction to the concept and business of stock photography. The author has done a great job of summarizing the short history of the stock licensing industry. Click here to read the article.
News
Jupiter Media reports on Q3 2005
Jupiter Media has once again posted a record quarter with revenues of 34.4 millon. This is an increase of 118% over the same period last year but only a very slight increase over the 33.8 million reported in the 2nd quarter of 2005. Net income for the third quarter was $60.4 million, or $1.62 per diluted share, compared to net income of $5.1 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, for the same period last year. Alan Meckler the CEO of Jupiter Media had the following to say "We have been emphasizing the development of our JupiterImages division and the third quarter illustrates continued organic and overall growth in the sales and distribution of commercial images. The acquisitions of PictureArts in July and BananaStock in October further solidifies JupiterImages' position as a leader in stock imagery.” With revenue only slightly above the previous quarter many are watching to see the effect of Getty's decision to boot the 40,000 Picture Arts images on Dec. 16th. There is speculation that this will cripple earnings and it may take Jupiter some time to overcome the loss. Alan Meckler has posted some comments on his Blog about Getty removing these images.
Andy Goetze at Stock Photo Talk has posted a nice comparison to the annual numbers for Getty and Corbis.
Click here for the original press release.
News
iStockphoto introduces CopySpace search feature
Although I normally find this sort of news to be very boring, iStockphoto has announced a new feature that I think really enhances iStockphoto’s already user-friendly search capabilities. The new feature is called CopySpace™ and it allows designers to indicate exactly where on an image they need to insert text or branding. CopySpace then searches all of iStockphoto's 475,000-plus files and returns only images that offer copy space where the designer has requested it. CopySpace can be combined with keyword, color, and/or image size searches, so the resulting images are even more specific to the advertisement, brochure or other marketing collateral being created. I have to say that these features seem a bit like unnecessary bells and whistles at first but together they make for a very pleasant search experience. The one complaint I might have is that the CopySpace feature is not very intuitive and you actually have to read the instructions (Ugh…who wants to read directions) to use it but once learned it seems to work pretty well.
Click here for the original press release on creativepro.
Features
Photoshop Questions and Answers
I recently came across Photoshop 911 a great new blog
from Photoshop
Tips & Tricks a supplement zine of DT&G
magazine. This blog has a great Questions an Answers
section for those who are looking for help from the design community with Photoshop
projects. Due to the popularityof this Questions and Answers page Photoshop 911 has lately been overwhelmed with questions and is also
looking for Photoshop experts who would like to contribute answers. Click here
to check out the site.
News
PA Group acquires All Action Digital
PA Group has acquired the Celebrity/Entertainment specialist agency All Action Digital in order to extend its reach in offering unique celebrity images to its customers. All Action Digital was founded by photographer Duncan Raban in 1981, and currently offers more than 2.5 million images focusing on personalities covering Film, Show-business, Music, Royalty, Fashion, and “Day In The Life” celebrity features. PA Group intends to make the new images available to customers through EMPICS, PA Group’s photo licensing division. Phil O’Brien, Managing Director of PA Group Photos had this to say about the acquisition, “We care passionately about the pictures we take and the service we deliver to our customers. We always aim to deliver photo productions that excite and exceed the expectations of picture editors, and we recognised that All Action Digital creates that excitement in its photography. All Action’s photographers live and breathe celebrity; they have great relationships in that arena, which allows them to capture unique moments.”
Terms of the deal have not been disclosed at this time.
News
Alamy now storing images in New York City
Alamy has announced plans to begin storing images in various locations around the US. Starting in December a copy of the entire 3.8 million image catalog will begin serving North American customers from New York City. This move has been implemented in order to shave precious seconds off the time required to return search results. The time to return search results is expected to be half of the time of results served from Alamy’s main office in London.
Click here for the press release.
Features
Hungry for food stock photography?
Last week I posted a little info about various agencies that specialize in religious images and I received several e-mails suggesting that I also post info on various other types of specialty libraries. Tonight I was cooking dinner when I thought that perhaps I could post a little info on stock agencies that specialize in food. Below is a short list of agents specializing in food images.
FoodPix
FoodPix is one of the many PictureArts brands now owned by Jupiter Media. FoodPix offers a very extensive rights-managed food collection.
Fabfoodpix.com
Fabfoodpix.com is a small stock photo company from London offering Royalty Free food images. Can’t find what you are looking for? Fabfoodpix has an in-house studio ready to create the images you need.
StockFood
StockFood claims to be the world's largest stock photography agency devoted entirely to food with nearly 90,000 Rights Managed and Royalty Free images offered.
Food Image Source
Food Image Source is a boutique stock agency from Nevada that offers high end rights-managed food and beverage images.
Net-Fotos.com
Manhattan food photographer Gerry Zanetti has made his work available online. The collection is small but offers many unique and interesting images.
Food Features Photo Library
UK Based Food Features Photo Library has a tempting collection of food and drink related pics from around the world.
Foodanddrinkphotos.com
Launched in Summer 2005, Foodanddrinkphotos.com is a great new resource for exciting rights-protected food and drink images.
News
15% off images at Adobe Stock Photos
In an apparent effort to boost image sales Adobe Stock Photos is now offering 15% off all images (Excluding Getty's Digital Vision and Photodisc brands). Adobe Stock Photos has been operating for much of 2005 and the success of this new stock photo service has been a closely guarded secret. Adobe has steadily increased its offering by adding new images and negotiating deals with key contributors to build up the collection to more than 450,000 hi-res images. Adobe Stock Photos has the advantage of marketing images exclusively through the Adobe Bridge which integrates with the entire CS2 Creative Suite. To take advantage of this promotion use the coupon code "FALL05" at the checkout. Click here for more details
Thanks to Mike at Hacking Netflix for sending this one in.
News
Jupiter acquires French distributor PR Direct
Jupiter Images has announced that it has acquired all of the shares of PR Direct SAS a small Royalty Free Distributor in France. PR Direct was already producing sales with many of the Jupiter brands and the main benefit seems to be that Jupiter now owns the local distributor and will no longer split the revenue. "The acquisition of the business and sales operations of PR Direct further aids in solidifying JupiterImages' position in the important French image market," stated Alan M. Meckler, Chairman and CEO of Jupitermedia Corporation. "PR Direct already distributes a number of our royalty-free brands so this was a natural acquisition for us. PR Direct's sales operations complement our existing operations [goodshoot] in France and will enable further expansion of our JupiterImages business throughout Europe." Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
Click here for the original Press Release.
Click here to read comments from Alan Meckler.
News
fStop Images and Workbook Stock hook-up
fStop Images has announced an agreement to have its library of Royalty Free images distributed by Los Angeles based Workbook Stock. fStop Images offers a unique collection that has grown to more than 5000 images (2000 more to be released next month) distributed by a network of more than 30 distributors worldwide including Getty, Veer, Punchstock, Workbook, and Amana. "We're very pleased to have Workbook as a part of our distribution network," said Derick Rhodes, fStop's Project Manager, "we feel that their impeccable aesthetic works very well with our own."
News
Jeff Clark leaps from Jupiter
Jeff Clark the former Chief Operating Officer of PictureArts has announced his departure from Jupiter/PictureArts stating that he considers his contribution to PictureArts complete after the business was sold to Jupitermedia Corporation for $63.2 million in July 2005 which he was significantly involved with. Jeff Clark was with PictureArts for approximately fours years as the company grew from 25 to 85 employees with a revenue increase of nearly 400%. Industry insiders have speculated that through recent acquisitions Jupiter Media has retained many senior level managers who may not have a place at the top of the evolving Jupiter Media organization. It remains to be seen whether Jeff Burke (Former CEO of PictureArts) will continue as an executive at Jupiter Media satisfied with reporting to Alan Meckler.
News
Fotolia is the new online marketplace for RF images
A new Royalty Free (RF) micro-payment site called Fotolia has launched offering
low-cost digital stock images and billing itself as the "social
marketplace for royalty-free stock images." The Fotolia business model
allows Photographers and designers to update Fotolia with thousands of new
photos and illustrations each day, while photographers and designers receive a
small commission from each photo sold and revenue from advertising on the free
section. Fotolia is translated into four languages (Spanish, French, German, and English) and is the latest entry into
the world of micro-payment websites targeted at semi-pro photographers and
designers. Fotolia is competing directly with Can Stock Photo, Dreamstime, iStockPhoto, and subscription service ShutterStock.
Special thanks to Steve Hall at Adrants for covering the launch of this
site.
Features
TrendWatch Graphic Arts issues report measuring Stock Image Industry
TrendWatch Graphic Arts has released a market sizing report for the stock image industry. This report is based on independent surveys to the creative, Internet, publishing, and graphic arts markets, the report offers stock image market sizing numbers, both in terms of units and dollar figures, for royalty-free and rights-managed images and CD collections in these four key markets and their sub-segments.
Highlights from this report
69% of graphic arts firms use between two and four stock image houses; only 3% purchase from five or more.
81% of creatives purchase their stock images from between two and four stock image houses; 8% single-source from a single agency.
Only 13% of creatives cited "accuracy of search engine" as an important factor when choosing a stock image house.
75% of publishers use between two and four stock image houses; 14% single-source from a single agency.
48% of Internet design and development firms single-source their stock images.
70% of Internet design and development firms see "price of images" as the most important factor when choosing a stock image house.
For more information click here to purchase the full report for the bargain-basement price of $995.00.
News
Big moves in stock photo industry
This week several big changes in key personnel have been announced by stock licensing companies. The many recent changes seem to indicate optimism among the small to mid-sized companies for the future. Among the recent changes are the following: (Shown In no particular order)
Digital Railroad Appoints Charles Mauzy as President
Charles Mauzy has a background as a photographer, photo agent, entrepreneur, technologist and executive. He will open Digital Railroad’s Seattle office, where he will be responsible for growing the company’s sales, marketing and operations. Mauzy was an executive in the Windows Media, Entertainment & Technology Convergence Group at Microsoft and later founded the Rich Media Group within the Office of the CTO, where he was responsible for planning Microsoft’s long-term digital imaging strategy and managing key photography industry alliances.
SuperStock Names Candice Crough VP of Direct Sales
Industry veteran Candice Crough has been named Vice President of Direct Sales, a new position at SuperStock Responsible for US and UK Sales Territories. Ms. Crough joins SuperStock from Imagestate where she was Director of Sales and Research responsible for managing US and UK sales teams. Previously she was East Coast Sales Manager for Corbis. Click here for more details.
OnRequest Images Appoints CMO and CFO
Janice Mayo has become the Chief Marketing Officer. Mayo brings more than 20 years of branding and marketing expertise and previously held the positions of; Senior Vice President of Marketing for Vertis, President of Foote, Cone and Belding Direct Los Angeles, and owner of her own advertising agency. Tom Colombo is the new Chief Financial Officer. A CPA, Colombo has a unique background which includes serving as CFO in the advertising industry as well as for a number of early-stage companies. Prior to joining OnRequest Images, Mr. Colombo was CFO of Sedgwick Rd. (formerly McCann-Erickson/Seattle), Director of finance at iStart Ventures LLC, CFO of Pacific Northwest Ballet, and spent a number of years in the audit group at Deloitte & Touche USA LLP.
ImageState Appoints COO and Head of Content
Imagestate has announced the appointment of Monica Hart as its new Chief Operating Officer. Monica has more than a decade of experience in the industry having worked at Adobe, PhotoDisc, and most recently Alamy, where she headed up the company’s worldwide commercial operations and was a company director for almost four years. Stuart Cox has been appointed as Head of Content. Stuart also comes to ImageState from Alamy where he was the Contributor Development and Partnerships Manager.
Jeff Clark leaves Jupiter Media
Jeff Clark the former Chief Operating Officer of PictureArts has announced his departure from Jupiter/PictureArts. (See previous post).
Sheldon Marshall Leaves Content Mine as Shareholder
StockPhotoTalk is reporting that Sheldon Marshall, Executive Chairman of Heritage Partners, is leaving Content Mine as a shareholder and has alienated the shares to an unnamed Berlin-based financial investor. Click here for more details.
Pepper Stark Recruiting VP, Creative Images (and other jobs)
Photo Archive News is reporting that Industry recruitment specialists PepperStark is looking for a 'Vice President Creative Images' for one of their top clients. The job can be based in Germany, France or the UK. Click here for more details.
News
SuperStock focusing on UK expansion
SuperStock/a21 has announced the launch of a new version of its website for UK customers located at www.superstock.co.uk. The launch of this new site is the latest in a series of aggressive moves designed to reach customers in the United Kingdom. Last month SuperStock acquired UK based Ingram Publishing and last week announced the appointment of Candace Crough to lead its sales team and establish itself as a powerhouse in the UK market. A successful expansion into the UK will likely fuel more opportunities to expand in other European markets.
Click here to review the original press release.
News
Shutterstock has launched Japanese language site
Subscription-based ShutterStock has announced the launch of a Japanese language version of its website located at www.ShutterStock.jp. With this translation, ShutterStock hopes to expand its customer base, offering its collection of more than 400,000 royalty-free images to the Japanese creative community. Jon Oringer, ShutterStock’s founder and CEO has stated "Our ongoing goal is to make ShutterStock as accessible as possible to the international design community" hinting that other foreign language versions of the site are coming in the future.
ShutterStock has built up its image collection by reaching out to semi-professional and pro-sumer photographers who submit images and receive $0.20 per image downloaded. Shutterstock currently offers its stock photo subscription for $139 per month; subscribers can download up to 25 images each day that can be used royalty-free, forever.
Features
Photoshop for your iPod
Looking for a way to write-off that new 5th generation iPod? Use it to brush up on your Photoshop skills by watching Photoshop TV episodes. These episodes are packed with tips and tricks and are produced by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). Each episode is Hosted by the “Photoshop Guys” Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, and Matt Kloskowski and I have found them to be surprisingly entertaining while learning about what’s new in the Photoshop industry and real-world Photoshop tips. Of course, if you don’t yet have an iPod , you can download the episodes to watch on your computer.
Thanks to Mike from Garagespin [a great blog focused on Indie music] for finding this one.
EditorialsFeaturesNews
Getty offers 20% coupon code to buyers in Asia Pacific
Fitting with its strategy to seek growth in Asian markets Getty is offering
a 20% discount on all RM and RF images including Stone, Photodisc, Digital
Vision and all other collections. To take advantage of this promotion customers must use the
coupon code XDNPC46N valid from Nov 17th
– Dec 31st 2005. Many industry analysts have speculated that Getty’s
best growth opportunities can be found in Asia. Bear Stearns recently issued a report about Getty Images containing the following statement “Getty’s
business today is split almost evenly between the Americas (50% of revenues in third-quarter 2005) and Europe (42% of revenues, which
includes minor contributions for the Middle East and Africa).
We believe that beyond the organic growth opportunity in those markets, the
growth opportunity in key Asian markets, namely Japan, China, and India, has
enormous potential.”
Update (11/29/05): Just received a post card offering the same 20% off promotion to customers in the US with the promo code WH3PC46N. Apparently this promotion was sent first to customers in Asia but is being offered to all customers worldwide.
News
Corbis is going to PicScout camp
PicScout recently announced that it has penned a deal to expand its
relationship with Corbis. The expanded relationship will cover more than 1.2 million Corbis Rights Managed
images utilizing PicScout’s Image Tracker Service. Corbis will use Image
Tracker to better protect its photographers and images collections against
misuse. "Corbis is constantly expanding the tools it uses to
protect against misuse of its represented imagery. Our images are seen daily by
millions of people around the world-in magazines, newspapers, and films, on
television, and in thousands of advertisements. Image Tracker will add to
Corbis' ability to track down and eliminate illegal use of Corbis images"
said David Weiskopf, Corbis Corporate Counsel. Click here to view the original
press release.
News
Alamy has grown to 4 Million images
Alamy has proudly announced that its image collection has
grown to more than 4 million images. Alamy’s collection is made up of both Rights-Managed (RM)
and Royalty-Free (RF) images from more than 5500 photographers and 340 agencies from around
the world. Alamy claims to have uploaded an average of 200,000 images a month
with more than 2 million images in 2005. The rapid growth can likely be
attributed to Alamy’s great reputation among artists including
Alamy’s use of technology to provide artists with
access to real-time sales data. Click here to
view the original press release. Click here to visit the AlamyPro user group
for contributing photographers.
